There are truly countless diseases in the world.
Among them, some can be easily confirmed through X-rays or MRIs, but many cannot.
Extreme mental stress places a heavy burden on the human body and ultimately causes illness.
For example, in the case of Meniere’s disease, which is considered rare even in otolaryngology, stress manifests as hearing loss and severe dizziness, yet the MRI shows no particular abnormalities.
The patient feels like they’re going mad and wants to tear their arms off, but proving the disease is difficult.
Because of this, doctors and colleagues repeatedly mock the patient as being “crazy.”
Unfortunately, modern medicine and scientific technology have yet to conquer such diseases.
However, humans sometimes behave overly paranoid, especially when they hold power…
“Hey, you bastard. Are you sure your ear hurts? You don’t look hurt at all.”
Twenty minutes before Kim Cheol-su’s emergency medical team was dispatched upon orders from the medical affairs department, the Yeosu Ship—belonging to the 31st Combat Squadron, 3rd Naval Combat Unit of the 3rd Fleet, responsible for protecting the seas of the Republic of Korea—was docked in Yeosu Harbor.
As usual, the ship was bustling with activity.
Private Bok Jun-young, diagnosed with Meniere’s disease at the military hospital, was aboard. He was a gifted individual who graduated from the law school and passed the bar exam.
However, because he was too old to be commissioned as a legal officer, he joined the military before entering the judicial research institute.
He had endured harsh conditions aboard the ship in the Navy and eventually contracted the rare disease Meniere’s.
Now, he suffered from extreme dizziness and hearing loss, feeling every day like he wanted to die.
But to his superior soldiers standing watch outside, he was nothing more than a nuisance, an attention-seeking patient.
“Ha. Damn it.”
Corporal Gwak Do-hyun, the powerful senior non-commissioned officer of the 4th squad, smoked a cigarette with a grim expression as he glared at Private Bok Jun-young.
Being overweight, he hated Private Bok intensely and often bullied him.
He didn’t look kindly on a Private who acted out with some ‘crazy disease’ when there was a lot of work to do.
“Hey, you bastard. You said you got diagnosed with some rare disease at the military hospital?”
“Y-Yes. That’s right!”
“But I heard it doesn’t even show up on the MRI. You just came back from leave and suddenly got smart? You purposely looked for that disease to act all pitiful.”
“I’m not pretending to be sick.”
“You bastard! You think you’re hot shit just because you’re older than me and studied more? Hey, what’s this? You talking back to a senior? You wanna die?”
“Come on, stick out your tongue!”
“…Y-Yes.”
“Quick, stick it out. You really wanna die?”
Under the terrifying atmosphere, he stuck out his tongue.
Then Corporal Gwak Do-hyun threw the cigarette butt he was smoking onto Private Bok Jun-young’s tongue.
“Ah!! Hot… It’s burning!”
“You little bitch, stop being such a drama queen. And don’t forget, if I go on leave this week, I promised to introduce your younger sibling. I saw the picture; they look pretty good. Before some other guys try to hit on them, I’m gonna make my move first. Got it? Why are you silent? You wanna die, you bastard?”
Private Bok Jun-young bit his lips in pain under Gwak Do-hyun’s intimidating gaze.
No matter how much of a senior he was, he could no longer tolerate it.
Touching his family was the last straw.
At that moment, something snapped in his mind, and Private Bok Jun-young aimed the loaded gun at the senior soldier.
“Whoa… What are you doing? Are you crazy?”
“Die! You bastard!!! Aaagh!!!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gun fired, and Gwak Do-hyun collapsed to the deck.
No one knew exactly where he was hit, but blood was definitely flowing.
Once a respected figure in society, Private Bok Jun-young tried to commit suicide on the spot by holding the gun backwards.
“Stop! Restrain him!”
But the officers who rushed over quickly subdued him, pinning him to the deck.
Private Bok Jun-young wept uncontrollably, tears of either anger or sorrow, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Hahaha! I killed him! I killed Corporal Gwak, the trash! Uhhahaha!”
“Shut up, you bastard! Won’t you shut up?!”
Bang! Bang!
He was struck unconscious by the officers swinging their batons.
Once the situation was understood, chaos erupted.
“This is a serious incident. Captain Kang Soo-ho, what do we do? There’s been an accident. Someone’s dead…”
“Don’t panic. It was caused by a patient under care anyway. If we chalk it up to a crazy bastard, there won’t be any damage to us. Contact the medical affairs department immediately and request support from the military hospital.”
“But… military hospitals have never used emergency helicopters before. Corporal Gwak will probably die before we even arrive.”
“Hmph! Whether he dies or not is none of my concern. Isn’t that guy’s fate? Our job is just to report.”
Captain Kang Soo-ho, with a cold expression, spoke with a commanding tone.
He didn’t care if one of his soldiers died.
But he wanted to prevent any negative fallout affecting personnel affairs because of this incident. So, he promptly reported to the medical affairs department.
The captain lit a cigarette and said,
“Ha… don’t worry too much. This incident was caused by one ‘crazy bastard’ firing wildly. It has nothing to do with our officers. Command responsibility? What the hell is that? He’s a half-baked lunatic. Meniere’s disease, huh? A disease where your ears spin? Perfectly fits a crazy bastard. Ha ha.”
“Ha ha! That’s true. Hearing that actually makes me feel better.”
“The captain’s right. We worried for nothing. Let’s just blame that bastard.”
No one considered that sending a sick patient on strenuous guard duty was a mistake.
They were just officers trying to cover their own backs.
But Captain Kang Soo-ho actually understood.
Putting him on guard duty and giving a live round to a patient under care—both could be considered command failures.
So, he thought to completely bury Private Bok Jun-young through public opinion manipulation.
“Let the local media catch wind of this. We’ll stir up a scandal like: ‘An attention-seeking patient who wasn’t even sick ends up shooting a senior officer! The victim is in critical condition!’ That’ll blow the incident wide open for us.”
“Understood, Captain. Victory!”
Now, as a lieutenant colonel, the captain had no thoughts about ruining his own future. It didn’t matter to him anymore.
A weakling’s life held no interest for him.
He threw his cigarette butt on the deck and shouted,
“What a damn nuisance! Some weird bastard joins the unit and causes trouble? Trash!”
He didn’t care why Private Bok Jun-young had to do such a thing.
He only wanted to kill the threat to his own security.
Suppressing the urge to slam the butt of his revolver on Bok Jun-young’s head lying on the deck, the captain muttered,
“Ha. That bastard Private Bok Jun-young. Since the medical team won’t arrive quickly anyway, he killed someone. A bug like that’s life is over now. Got it? You could have been a legal officer if you’d studied well, but your mind’s too weak. Meniere’s disease, huh? A disease that makes your ears spin. Fits a crazy bastard perfectly.”
Just as Bok Jun-young, who had given up everything, closed his eyes tightly, a rope of light descended from the sky.
“……”
Startled, Captain Kang Soo-ho raised his head and shouted,
“What… What? The helicopter’s already here? Crazy!!! How is this possible? The military hospital has never used an emergency helicopter.”
Private Bok Jun-young had indeed acted in a moment of temporary rage, but he never truly wished to kill.
Life sparked back in his eyes, which had once given up.
He quietly muttered,
“Save him. Please save him… I don’t want to kill anyone. It’s true… I was wrong.”
Kim Cheol-su, who had just disembarked the emergency helicopter, shouted,
“Where is the patient?! Quickly bring the stretcher to where the patient is!”
“Yes, sir!”
Shin Se-young and Oh Ha-jin hurriedly pushed the stretcher off the ship.
Captain Kang Soo-ho, flustered, stalled for time.
He hoped that Corporal Gwak Do-hyun would die so they could frame the perpetrator as a crazy lunatic.
People would sympathize with the victim shot and brutally murdered and wouldn’t question why such an act happened.
But the medical team arrived too quickly. Thinking the patient might survive, the captain deliberately obstructed.
“How come it’s already here…? Haha. It hasn’t been long since you contacted us.”
“Are you the captain? Please tell us where the patient is first.”
“Well, why don’t you take a look at the perpetrator’s face first? That guy claims he has a rare disease and is completely crazy. He went on a shooting rampage aboard the ship, so honestly, he deserves to be killed.”
“Please tell us where the patient is as soon as possible.”
Kim Cheol-su’s face hardened with urgency. He honestly wanted to punch the captain in the face but held back.
Since he wasn’t familiar with the ship’s layout, he restrained himself.
“There’s a medical facility aboard. We call it the treatment room. The patient should be there. Since you’ve come a long way, catch your breath first.”
“Understood. Let’s move the stretcher, everyone!”
Passing through the narrow corridor, Kim Cheol-su entered the treatment room.
Medical personnel pressed on the bloodied patient’s neck.
“Hyuk…! Hyuk…!”
The patient’s breathing was rapid, and blood flowed from the neck wound.
It was a gruesome and cruel sight: a patient with a gunshot wound to the neck.
“Move aside! We have to get him to the hospital.”
Kim Cheol-su quickly laid Corporal Gwak Do-hyun on the stretcher and checked his condition.
Fortunately, the visible external wound was only one spot on the neck.
They had heard about the shooting rampage on the way here, but luck seemed to be on their side.
Drum roll!
As they quickly pushed the stretcher and used the eye X-ray, they saw the patient’s condition was very poor.
The patient’s breathing was already compromised, and the injury to the neck’s pharynx was severe.
He was a lucky patient… but the bullet had pierced exactly through the pharynx and the carotid artery (the blood vessel supplying blood from the heart to the brain).
If left untreated, he would die from respiratory failure.
Or he could suffer neurological deficits from carotid artery damage.
Kim Cheol-su’s heart raced.
Drum roll!
After pushing the stretcher for a long time, a helicopter with its rotors spinning came into view.
They were almost there.
Once on board the helicopter, they had to secure the airway. The patient’s breathing was obstructed and extremely dangerous.
“Hyuk… Hyuk… Hyuk, ba.”
Corporal Gwak Do-hyun’s shallow breaths reached Kim Cheol-su’s ears. They had to save him at all costs.
Kim Cheol-su didn’t care about the relationship between perpetrator and victim. His priority was saving a life.
At that moment, Captain Kang Soo-ho appeared and said,
“What about the perpetrator? We can’t just leave him like this, can we?”
“What are you talking about? We’re medical personnel from the hospital. Leave that to the military police or military prosecutors.”
“Still, as the commanding officer of the unit where the accident occurred, I request you take both of them with you. There won’t be any problems with that, right?”
His persistent insistence suggested ulterior motives.
Enraged, Kim Cheol-su cursed and punched him hard.
Bang!
“Shut up, you bastard! What are you blabbering about? Don’t block the way!”
“Grr! How dare you hit me? I’m reporting this to the military prosecutor!”
“Do as you like! We’re going!”
Unable to stop them any longer, the officers boarded the emergency helicopter.
Shin Se-young and Oh Ha-jin’s anxious faces were visible.
Only the patient’s ragged breathing filled the helicopter’s interior.
Hyuk!! Hyuk!! Heng!! Hyuk, bi.
If left alone, the patient would die not from bleeding but respiratory failure. The first priority was airway management.
Forget the carotid artery and everything else—make him breathe.
Kim Cheol-su pushed aside his earlier anger and focused on the patient.
To buy time, fluids and transfusions were started.
“Bring me a curved laryngoscope. I’ll try to secure the airway.”
Kim Cheol-su struggled, but unfortunately, airway management with the laryngoscope failed. Too much blood flowed from the white part of the patient’s neck.
At this point, there was no other choice.
Drum roll!
With a determined look, Kim Cheol-su said inside the helicopter flying through the sky,
“Airway management with a curved laryngoscope has failed. I will perform an emergency cricothyrotomy.”
“T-that’s too risky. If it goes wrong, Lieutenant Colonel will be responsible… Absolutely not!”
Captain Oh Ha-jin opposed fiercely, worried about Kim Cheol-su.
“Can’t we wait until we reach the operating room?”
Shin Se-young pleaded with desperate eyes. She didn’t want to lose Kim Cheol-su in this surgery.
If the patient died during surgery on the helicopter, Kim Cheol-su might never operate again.
He would face tremendous public criticism.
Of course, Kim Cheol-su understood this well. He wasn’t an idiot.
But he had never hesitated at a moment like this in his life.
Even if the surgery failed and he lost everything, he believed there was no other option as a doctor.
To save one person, he was willing to lose all he had.
After making the difficult decision, Kim Cheol-su smiled slightly and told the surgical team,
“This is a doctor helicopter, so it has some facilities inside. From now on, we’ll begin emergency cricothyrotomy to secure the airway. Everyone, prepare for surgery!”